Tag Archives: #sustainability

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is out to cement his reputation as the Environment and Sustainability Mayor! He has been on a global quest to show what Atlanta is already doing to address climate and environment. Here’s a summary of his activity and the full press release is in this link: Mayor Kasim Reed Participates in COP 21 Panel in Paris:

City of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is among the leading city executives in the U.S. on climate change. This year, he addressed a joint U.S.-China summit on climate in Los Angeles, sharing many of the ideas and solutions currently in use in the City of Atlanta with an audience of hundreds of Chinese officials and dignitaries. In November, Mayor Reed presented at the World Economic Forum Conference on Urban Mobility and the McKinsey & Co. Global Infrastructure Initiative in San Francisco.

Mayor Reed was just in Paris France for a series of speaking engagements and to participate in the Climate Summit for Local Leaders, organized by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The event is a series of negotiations among world leaders to make an agreement to address global climate change, known as COP 21. Mayor Reed pictured taking the Paris Metro to meetings with Jenna Garland, Stephanie Benfield and Claire Angelle.

“Climate change is one of the most important issues we face nationally and internationally,” said Mayor Reed. “Atlanta’s presence at the COP 21 Paris climate meetings demonstrates our commitment to local action. I look forward to sharing our work in the City of Atlanta with other leaders from around the world, and collaborating on opportunities to cut pollution and secure a stable climate for future generations.”

Mayor Reed participated in a number of panel discussions and sessions with world leaders, including a “Buildings Day” session focused on ways to reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint from commercial buildings. He discussed Atlanta’s national leadership in the Better Buildings Challenge, The Better Buildings Challenge is a public-private partnership to reduce energy and water consumption by 20 percent by the year 2020. Atlanta leads the nation with more than 100 million square feet of commercial building space committed to the challenge.

Under Mayor Reed’s leadership, the City of Atlanta is innovating in implementing solutions for climate change and sustainability. Among them:

1). Undertaking a project to increase its reserve waters supply from three days to 90 days by turning Bellwood Quarry into a reservoir;

2) Creating aSolar Atlanta initiative that will see solar panels installed on 28 firehouses and recreation center, lowering energy consumption by as much as 40 percent, and the Better Buildings Challenge, a national initiative to lower commercial energy consumption.

3). Electrifying the City of Atlanta Vehicle Fleet. Through partnership with California based VisionFleet, Mayor Reed has committed to replacing fossil fuel based City vehicle fleet with electric vehicles. City of Atlanta Electric Vehicle Fleet Program

Atlanta Electric Vehicle Development Coalition is proud of the work Mayor Reed and his Director of the City of Atlanta Office of Sustainability, Stephanie Benfield are doing to rapidly promote and advance energy efficient, climate favor solutions for the City of Atlanta. Watch for more from our Mayor and his Sustainability team in 2016!

WOW! Big news from Mayor Kasim Reed’s office about the City of Atlanta moving to Electric Vehicles in its Fleet Program – 50 EV’s in the City’s Fleet by the end of 2015 in partnership with Vision Fleet:

ATLANTA – The City of Atlanta announced today it will deploy one of the largest municipal fleets of electric vehicles in the United States by the end of 2015 under legislation approved this week by the Atlanta City Council. The measure is part of Mayor Kasim Reed’s agenda to ensure that Atlanta is one of the nation’s leading cities for sustainability, and will reduce the city’s dependence on fossil fuels while saving taxpayers thousands of dollars per year.

The new fleet deployment complements the existing efforts of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to support electric vehicles such as the recent installation of the first public charging station on Mitchell Street near Atlanta City Hall. The charging station is free and open to the public.

“Replacing our current cars with clean-fueled vehicles, powered by cutting-edge technology, is a historic step for the City of Atlanta,” said Mayor Reed. “The program is yet another example of how we are fully invested in making Atlanta a healthier and more prosperous city.”

Spearheaded by the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, the new vehicle fleet program is aligned with the City’s Power to Change Plan which seeks to reduce vehicle emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020.

“This is the start of a long-term program to develop policies and programs that will encourage employees, residents and businesses to consider using electric vehicles,” said Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability.“We are grateful to our partners who helped with the passage of this program, including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Clean Cities Georgia, NRG eVgo and Georgia Power’s Electric Transportation Team.”

In partnership with Vision Fleet a plug-in vehicle fleet company, the City of Atlanta developed an innovative financing structure that bundles together all the expenses of purchasing, fueling and maintaining the electric vehicles into a guaranteed rate that is a lower cost than conventional vehicles. Additionally, Vision Fleet will utilize its comprehensive suite of technology, data analytics, and provide operational support designed specifically for reducing the cost of ownership of alternative fuel vehicles.

The City of Atlanta fleet vehicles will include 100 percent electric models, such as the Nissan LEAF, as well as plug-in hybrid models like the Chevrolet Volt and the Ford Fusion Energi. Cars will be distributed throughout the city’s fleet based on the needs of each department.

“This project will have enormous impacts on fuel consumption and fleet service costs,” said Vision Fleet CEO Michael Brylawski. “For example, each of the 50 electric vehicles deployed will save at least 550-600 gallons of gas annually. In addition, fuel costs for the new electric vehicles will be about one-third of the old gas vehicles costs, and maintenance will be reduced by approximately 40 percent.”

I want to thank all of my faithful blog readers for your support over the past year since Atlanta Electric Vehicle Development Coalition was launched! The blog has reached readers in over 80 countries with almost 14,000 views!

It has been very exciting to see just how much Atlanta has embraced electric vehicles (projection of 25,000 in metro Atlanta by year-end 2015) and to see the incredible build out of EV charging station infrastructure since I put my first Chevrolet VOLT on the road in August 2012. Now it really is possible to own an EV in metro Atlanta and find public charging almost anywhere!

With the build out of charging infrastructure a new opportunity presented itself: offer non-EV owners the opportunity to experience the thrill of driving an electric vehicle and experience the joys of low-cost ownership, and gasoline free, CO2 free driving! And offer current EV owners the opportunity to really experience the Tesla Model S.

I am delighted to introduce to my readers a new company: Georgia EVentures, LLC.My mission is very simple: enable Georgians to get behind the wheel of two of the best examples of range anxiety free electric vehicle driving and to drive these vehicles they way they drive their fossil fuel powered vehicles: in their neighborhoods, to their offices and shopping areas and for day trips to destinations they enjoy.

2014 Chevrolet VOLT Premium with 38-47 miles of electric vehicle driving range and 400 miles with the range extender. The current daily rental rate is $59.00/day. 2014 Chevrolet VOLT RelayRides

Georgia EVentures has partnered with RelayRides to offer these vehicles to you in an easy to rent manner.

In partnership with StudioFindit (StudioFindit 2015 Tesla Model S60) the Tesla is available for film production. Who knows, “BlueBeauty” may be seen in an upcoming feature film or cable or network TV series!

Thanks for your faithful readership! I look forward to hearing about your experience with these amazing electric vehicles and Georgia EVentures!

US Electrified vehicle sales up are up an impressive +24% YTD November breaking the 100,000 unit mark! Over 275,000 EVs on US roads +74% vs. same period last year. EV charging station installations still lag EV sales: one EV connector for every five EVs! A few readers asked for EV Charging rules. Here’s a good resource: evrules.com

What if the range of a Nissan Leaf was 500 miles vs. 73-80 today? With a range of over 1,855 miles, a Model S might never need to see a SuperCharger again!

Sound far-fetched? According to Gas2 author Steve Hanley maybe not. In his article, Hanley recently reported that “This week a research team at the University of Tokyo School of Engineering has announced a new lithium ion battery that packs seven times more energy density – at 2,570 watt-hours per kilogram – than current lithium ion batteries. The team, led by Professor Noritaka Mizuno, adds cobalt to the lithium oxide crystal structure of the positive electrode, which promotes the creation of oxides and peroxides during the charge/discharge cycle. In addition, it promises significantly faster recharge times as well.”

Whether the 7X lithium ion comes to pass or not, one thing is for sure: there is a lot of R&D time and money being invested in higher capacity, faster charging batteries which will all but eliminate ‘range anxiety’ in EVs! With almost 250,000 on the road in the US, EVs, in all of their forms, are here to stay!

Charging your electric vehicle at work in New Jersey just got a little easier thanks to a WorkPlace Charging program sponsored by PSEG. PSEG will provide up to 150 charging systems for free. Participating workplaces will need to install the units and pay for the electricity. PSEG will own the charging systems and collect usage data to better understand the impact of workplace charging on electric demand and the electric delivery system.

PSEG also released data on the first year of operations of its own employee electric car incentive program launched one year ago, including:

The 13 employees in the program are estimated to have driven 120,000 miles on electric commuting to and from work in the first twelve months of the program.

The participants are estimated to have saved5,300 gallons of gas and avoided spending nearly $19,000 on gas just on their commute.

By commuting on electric, it is estimated that the program helped avoid 50 to 60 tons of CO2 being released into the air as well as reduced particulate, SOx and NOx emissions in communities through the state.

Workplace charging programs are pickingup steam across the US! Recently, the Department of Energy through the CleanCities program announced a $4.5 million funding program to encourage greater consumer engagement with alternative fuel vehicles. No doubt many of those pilot programs will focus on workplace charging. Georgia is expected to compete for funding given the very strong CleanCitiesGeorgia program under the leadership of Director Don Francis.

The world of electric vehicles can be overwhelming. We’ve got a Resources page dedicated helping you quickly and easily learn more about EVs and ownership in Atlanta and Georgia> https://atlantaevdc.com/resources-2/. Consumer Reports covers both vehicle and home charging reviews. Check out Georgia Power’s incredible money saving PEV rate plan, and read about the current Federal and State of Georgia Income Tax Credits. Take a look!